Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

6.1 Introduction

Purpose of the brief

The briefing should be concise, and the interaction should be two way. The student should come to the pre flight briefing knowing all they need to know for that event. The instructor's role should be to check and importantly clarify, prior to commencing the simulator or flight. This is primarily done through questioning, but the questions should not be focused on number recall or testing, but on reasoning and practical application. At the end of the brief, the student should be aware of what is to be done, when it is happening, and most importantly how it is to be done.

The three target end-states (what / when / how) are progressive. What and when are recoverable from the lesson plan; the trainee can read those in advance. How is the briefing's load-bearing contribution: it is the sequence, technique, and decision-logic the trainee will execute, and it is the part the trainee cannot reliably extract from a written lesson plan alone. An instructor who briefs only the what and when and assumes the how will emerge in the session has misread the brief: the brief exists because how needs to be agreed before the session opens, not surfaced inside it.

6.1.1 Rules of Training and Checking Announced prior to Briefing

The instructor announces the following standing rules before each session. They are the operational floor every brief assumes:

  • Train as you fly and fly as you train. The simulator and the line are the same activity at different fidelity; behaviour rehearsed in one is the behaviour that recurs in the other.
  • The trainees' comment "I thought this was because we are in a simulator" has no place during simulator training. Negative training (handling the device differently because it is a device) defeats the purpose of the session.
  • Use the automated systems as suggested by the manufacturer. That is: use the autopilot, A/THR and F/D whenever possible. Revert to the proper level of automation as the situation dictates. If manual flying is required by the instructor, the instructor will state it.
  • Following a Procedural Problem, use the IDMM acronym: FORDEC to help in solving. (Facts / Options / Risks / Decision / Execution / Check; the standard normative-decision tool.)
  • Subsequent Operational Problems communicate as in the actual aircraft: ATC, cabin crew and passengers; OPS, OCC and MCC (the 5 Cs).
  • Support and correct the other crew member if he deviates from SOP. Operate as a crew (task sharing, monitoring, support). PM should query PF if he does not follow the course of his original briefing.
  • Always be commercial minded in the interest of the operator without compromising safety. Safety is the floor; commercial awareness operates above the floor, not at its expense.

The list is short, fixed, and announced prior to briefing rather than embedded in it. The placement is deliberate: these rules govern every session in the syllabus, so they do not need re-deriving each time. The instructor states them, confirms understanding, and proceeds into the lesson-specific brief.

6.1.2 Briefing Guidelines

Guidelines for the briefing are specified on the applicable lesson plans. The instructor will brief the upcoming lesson in detail using applicable manuals and other supportive material as required. The trainee will have prepared himself for the upcoming lesson also by reference to the syllabus. The instructor can expect that the trainee is adequately prepared. The briefing enhances the study by the trainee: it gives the opportunity to discuss issues in detail. All abnormals will be briefed by reference to the QRH, the FCOM and the FCTM.

Instructor Briefing Support will be provided for recurrent training as required. The instructor should refer to this material during briefing. Flight Operations may come up with special briefing items in response to current operational issues. They may not necessarily be part of the recurrent cycle in use. New procedures or technical matters that came up during the previous 6 months should be addressed during briefing for recurrent training.

The two briefing modes (initial training lesson; recurrent simulator) operate against different reference documents but share the same discipline: the lesson plan or the approved briefing material is the source of truth, and the briefing is the channel through which it lands with the trainee.

6.1.3 Formal Briefing

A formal briefing is required prior to all checks or tests conducted in the simulator, primarily to ensure that the "ground rules" for the event are clearly established. The specific content and sequence of the briefing is to be determined by the examiner.

However, the following elements should be included:

  • The candidates' responsibilities.
  • City pairs to be flown, weather conditions (actual or simulated).
  • The Examiner's role.
  • Description of the flight check (in general or chronological order as desired).
  • Any simulator defects.
  • The Assessment and Grading criteria.
  • Actions in case of a non-selected malfunction occurring.
  • Differences between the simulator and the fleet standard. (See the applicable Simulator Differences Manual.)

The list is the minimum content; the examiner sequences and elaborates as the check requires. The "ground rules" framing is the operational core: candidates entering a check session need to know what they are being measured against and how the examiner will conduct the check, before the check begins. Surprise expectations inside a check session contaminate the assessment data the check is designed to produce.

6.1.4 Safety Briefing

The safety briefing is not optional and is not contingent on the trainee's experience: it is the first thing that happens in every event, regardless of whether the trainees are new joiners or recurrent crews who have used the same facility many times. The Health-and-Safety component appears again in the 6.5 Introduction (General Information) of the brief itself, tailored to audience and event; the standing rule is that the safety brief happens.

Structure

The opening section establishes the briefing's purpose, the standing rules announced before each session, the guidelines that differ between training-lesson and recurrent-simulator events, the formal-briefing minimum content for checks and tests, and the safety briefing that opens every event. The remainder of pre instructional briefing material is the operational craft that makes those requirements deliverable:

  • 6.2 Briefing Aids covers the briefing aids (whiteboard, models, photographs, PowerPoint) and the Style/Tone/Level discipline behind their use, and walks the four-step Sequence of Pre Flight Brief.
  • 6.3 Preparation covers the preparation that precedes the brief (location, environmental safety, training-equipment serviceability, training aids, scene-setting).
  • 6.4 Briefing Structure sets out the briefing structure as the three-element relationship (skills, trainees, instructor) the rest of pre instructional briefing material rests on.
  • 6.5 Introduction (General Information) covers the General-Information opener (Self / Trainees / Health and Safety / Overview) that begins every brief.
  • 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model reproduces the operational scaffold (Aim / Why / Administration / Revision / Elements) that an instructor uses to structure the brief end-to-end.
  • 6.7 LOFT Briefing - Suggested Format and Contents reproduces the LOFT Briefing format and contents in full.

The EBT-specific equivalent of the briefing pattern, as run in a recurrent EBT module, lives in A4.2.3 Conduct of Briefing. Where pre instructional briefing material is the instructional craft applied to any training event in the syllabus, A4.2.3 Conduct of Briefing is the operational pattern run on the EBT recurrent module specifically (briefing from a seated position, conversational rather than scripted, the six itemised elements: Introductions / Confirmation of Understanding / Objective / Planning Time / Manoeuvres Validation / Conclusion). The two should be read together by any instructor who runs both an initial-training event and an EBT recurrent module in the same week.

Cross-references